Success!

"Welcome to the team."

And with that, my outsourcing sentence was commuted - I was back to having a normal job again - the day before my severance date. Ironically, still with the bank, albeit with a new department.

The interview with S.D., the boss of the Jacksonville manager I interviewed with Wednesday, went extremely well. She had been briefed, and already knew I was qualified for the job. So she focused on assessing how good a fit I'd be: were my expectations in line with what the job had to offer? Perhaps she was concerned that it was less glamorous than the web development I had been doing. But my answers seemed to allay her concerns: I was genuinely excited about the opportunity. She ended our session by welcoming me to the team.

And what a wonderful feeling: I had a job! The specter of being laid off - hanging over me, never far off - finally gone. What a relief. I probably had a grin on my face the rest of the day, and a delightfully silly grin it was.

Immediately after the interview, the Jacksonville manager contacted my current boss with the news. They had already talked earlier, and my boss immediately went to work with HR to reinstate me and remove the June 30th termination date. Somehow my HR Angel, the transition specialist that got me the severance package, was involved and personally handled things on the other end. She said July 1st "would be a non-event", so I'm optimistic I won't have to go through the burdensome process of being completely rehired.

Tonight our family celebrated. My wife and kids had all felt the stress of a drastically reduced lifestyle looming around the corner. No longer - we are back amongst the gainfully employed.

Now that's what I call a birthday present!

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